THE mystery surrounding an unidentified burning body on a motorway hard shoulder in Warwickshire ended today when the man’s killer was jailed for life.

Police were faced with a puzzle when charred remains with nothing to identify them were found by the M45 near Rugby, on December 30 last year.

But using CCTV technology officers were able to track down his killer and arrest him just days later, nearly 100 miles away in Plaistow, east London.

Dental records confirmed the identity of the victim as 60-year-old Pakistani businessman Sher Khan, a father of seven and respected community figure.

His flatmate, Afghan immigrant Irshad Wali, 52, had battered him at least 20 times in the hallway of the house they shared with four other men in Plaistow.

He wrapped the body in a sheet and drove north in Mr Khan’s car, stopping on the way for petrol which he used to douse the corpse before setting light to it.

Wali was found guilty of murder and perverting the course of justice by an Old Bailey jury and jailed for life today with a minimum term of 18 years.

The court heard that his deadly attack was so brutal that it fractured his skull and two vertebrae.

Judge Martin Stephens said the victim, who was held in "respect and affection by members of his community", had been "kind and trusting" towards Wali.

He condemned the killer’s actions in setting fire to the body - an act described by the victim’s family as a "humiliation".

The judge told him: "It was an abhorrent act which shocks the mind of any right-thinking member of society."

After the murder the killer "set about a deception that the dead man was in fact still alive and well" by withdrawing Â£300 from accounts belonging to the victim.

Jeremy Donne QC, prosecuting, said: "If the body was not identified and if the victim had not been reported missing because people thought he was alive and well then this defendant would quite literally have got away with murder.

"Unfortunately for him a thorough and painstaking police investigation did uncover the identity of the dead man and uncover the evidence that points conclusively to the defendant’s guilt."

Officers in Warwickshire were able to identify around 30 cars that were on the motorway at the time, narrowing these down to one which fitted the description given by an eye witness and tracing the vehicle to Mr Khan in London.

The investigation was transferred to the Metropolitan Police and they arrested Wali at the Plaistow address on January 7.

CCTV from a service station showed the killer buying the petrol he used to burn the body from a Texaco service station, while an eye witness identified Wali as being at the site where the body was dumped.

The court heard that Wali, a married father of seven, may have been in a business dispute with Mr Khan, a Pakistani chicken shop owner and car dealer.

Jurors rejected his claim that the murder was carried out by a mystery man who then forced him to dispose of the body.

Detective Inspector Tim Wilkinson said police had been presented with a "complete mystery" and that without the use of CCTV technology the case would never have been solved.